This application is based on Patent Application No. 2000-128488 filed Apr. 27, 2000 in Japan, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector mounted to electronic equipments such as cellular phones, telephones, PDA (personal digital assistance), portable audio, cameras and the like, more specifically to a card connector which can be loaded simultaneously with at least two cards of different types differing in outer shape, contact pad position or the like.
2. Description of Prior Art
In electronic machines such as cellular phones, telephones, PDA, cameras and the like, various functional expansions are achieved by mounting IC cards such as SIM (subscriber identify module) card, MMC (multimedia card; (trademark)), SMART MEDIA(trademark), SD (super density: secure digital) card, MEMORY STICK(trademark) and the like, which ICs (integrated circuits) such as memories or the like are included. IC cards, a plurality of contact terminals connected with various signal processing circuits at the electronic machine side mounted with the connector and a power supply circuit are provided in a connector housing, and these plurality of contact terminals are contacted with a plurality of contact pads formed on the front or backside of the mounted IC card, so that the IC card is electrically connected through these contacts with the electronic machines mounting the connector.
As described above, IC cards of this kind include various cards differing in outer shape or contact pad position, however, recently, a card connector is in demand which can be loaded with cards of a plurality of different types simultaneously so that the electronic machines can be adaptable to cards of a plurality of types.
For example, when considering a card connector which is possible to be loaded with two types of card, as one construction thereof, a card slot is constructed so that two types of card arranged side by side to the right and left can be inserted.
However, when cards are arranged side by side to the right and left, connector area on the substrate is increased which is a disturbance in downsizing of the electronic machine. Further, in the card connector, to make respective cards operative normally, it is essential that a card recognition switch is provided for recognizing the inserted card, however, when the card slots are arranged side by side to the right and left as above, as card recognition switches, two contact strips are necessary for each card, leading to an increase in number of portions and in cost.
Furthermore, as another configuration of connector capable of loading with two types of card, a technique is considered in which the card slot is constructed so that cards can be inserted in a positional relation of upper and lower sides.
In this case, however, because, when respective contact terminals for two types of card are arranged so that the respective contact terminals are pressed in and fixed in a same direction (for example, contact terminals are pressed from a card rear surface wall side to a card ejection direction), soldered portions of respective contact terminals are concentrated to one of rear surface side and front surface side of the card housing, these soldered portions tend to be interfered with each other, and the layout thereof becomes very difficult.
That is, in this type of card connector, the plurality of contact terminals are required to be arranged so that soldered portions fixed to the printed circuit board are disposed in a single line with an appropriate pitch for subsequent repair (soldered portion is peeled off using an soldering iron (electric type)), image recognition when the board is mounted or for image inspection of the soldered portions. When the soldered portions are arranged in two rows, the outside soldered portions are accessed by the soldering iron, however, the inside soldered portions are not accessible by the soldering iron. To dispose soldered portions of a plurality of contact terminals in a line, it is necessary to arrange soldered portions of contact terminals for one card between pitches of soldered portions of the other card, when the pitch is small in width, the arrangement thereof becomes substantially impossible.
Furthermore, as described above, since, in each of this type of card, the pitch of a contact pad are naturally different from each other, in order to arrange in a line the respective soldered portions of respective cards of different-pitched contact pad, it is necessary to devise a complex shape of soldered portion of contact terminals, which poses a problem of difficulty in manufacture.
In the present invention which has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, an object thereof is to provide a card connector which is capable of containing two or more types of card differing in outer shape or contact pad position, in which required substrate area can be reduced, and layout work of contact terminals, soldering work and maintenance and servicing work and the like can easily be carried out.
With the aim of achieving the above object of the present invention, in one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a card connector which is capable of containing at least two types of first and second cards differing in outer shape and contact pad position, the card connector comprising, a connector housing configured so that a first slot containing the first card and a second slot containing the second card are disposed in upper and lower sides, wherein the first contact terminals are disposed so that respective soldered portions of a plurality of contact terminals for the first card are positioned at one side of front surface side and rear surface side of the connector housing, and the second contact terminals are disposed in the opposite direction to the first contact terminals so that a plurality of contact terminals for the second card are positioned at the other side of front surface and rear surface sides of the connector housing.
According to the present invention, respective slots for two types of card are disposed in upper and lower sides, first and second contact terminals for respective cards are disposed so that respective press-fit directions are opposite to each other.
Therefore, even if the respective slots for two types of card are disposed in upper and lower sides, respective soldered portions of the first and second contact terminals will not interfere with one another, and the respective soldered portions can easily be arranged each in a single line.
As a result, press-fit operation of respective contact terminals becomes easy, image recognition of soldered portions at the time of substrate mounting and image inspection of soldered portions are made easy, and repair work using an soldering iron (electric type) becomes easy.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.